Читать книгу Monument Future - Siegfried Siegesmund - Страница 133

Over centuries the Mongolian nomads had influenced art, culture and religion in Central Asia significantly and left a remarkable legacy including numerous funerary monuments. They are spread over the area of today’s Mongolia, often remote and far away from settlements. Among them is the monument of Ikh Khöshööt, situated in the Delgerkhaan soum (sub-district) of Tov Province in 102Eastern Mongolia. It is acknowledged as tomb for a Turkic military leader from the beginning of the 8th century. The complex comprises 15 main stone sculptures arranged over an area of many square metres. They include two rectangular steles, whereby the larger shows Turkic runic inscriptions on three sides. The other animal- and human-shaped sculptures are present in pairs, as already observed by Kotwicz and Samoïovitch (1928: 69). While the animal-like ones probably depict lions and sheeps (Kotwicz and Samoïovitch 1928), the human-likes appear as simple torsos.

In addition fragments of a former sarcophagus are lying dispersed on the West side of the complex. The original arrangement and positioning of the single objects is no longer comprehensible as the objects have been repeatedly dislocated in the framework of expeditions and site visits. Nevertheless, a linear arrangement is assumed following an axis running along the former sarcophagus and the steles with the remaining sculptures arranged alongside this straight. Research on the complex site was pursued since the beginning of the 20th century, whereby emphasis was placed on documentation (visual and descriptive) and transcription of the inscriptions. Conservation scientific research on the site has started in 2016 in the framework of the collaboration between the University of Applied Arts Vienna and the National Center for Cultural Heritage (NCCH) in Mongolia. On site campaigns in 2016, 2018 and 2019 co-funded by the Eurasia-Pacific Uninet and the NCCH were dedicated to the documentation, the condition survey, non-invasive tests, the implementation of conservation measures and monitoring as well as to the training of Mongolian colleagues. In parallel, analyses of taken samples were carried out in Vienna.